Category Archives: workouts

April 11, 2011 · 3:10 pm

Superman Says Eat Local

Congratulations Charlottesville marathoners!  You ROCK, Cville doesn’t know flat so it’s a tough course. You inspire me!

My first thought on Saturday morning was “they’ve already been running for nearly an hour!”.  My second thought was “I want to join them”.

So I did.

You know, after a leisurely breakfast and coffee. 😉

At first I felt kind of guilty when I met up with the race course and started cruising by people at mile 15, here I was just getting warmed up and they were getting ready to hit the wall.  Then I reconfigured my attitude and decided that my fresh energy would hopefully enliven them a little.

My plan was to go out for a quick and easy 3.3 miles but I was having so much fun and was SO INSPIRED by all of the running dedication surrounding me that I went an extra mile.  The second half of my run was swimming upcurrent of the runners (don’t worry, it was pretty thin so I didn’t get in anyone’s way) so I got to give every single marathoner I passed a HUGE grin and sometimes a “nice pace!” or “beautiful morning, isn’t it?”.   I got a few high five’s in but quickly realized that you have ZERO energy to spare when you are running for hours, not even to raise your hand!

While I didn’t complete 26.2 I did cover a lot of miles this weekend, 16.5 over Saturday and Sunday by walking, running, and HIKING!

I love, love, love hiking and yesterday’s romp around Shendoah National Park with Matt + Kath was a perfect way to spend a Spring Sunday.

Superman say’s “Eat Local” and Matt agrees!

84 foot South River Falls

Naturally, there was lots of real food refueling.

Super seedy and delicious Great Harvest Dekota bread, three kinds of cheese and lots of veg.

Manna bread and almond butter cookies topped us off.

I went a little nuts in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon and whipped up big batches of sprouted wheat biscuits and cookies.

Sprouted wheat, shredding carrots, dates.

I baked this batch of sprouted wheat bread in individual biscuit form because the first loaf was so crumbly and took forever to cook.

These cookies were made without an iota of a plan and sadly they kind of taste like that.  I had a little bit of applesauce and some extra shredded carrots (from the manna) so into the food processor they went.  An impulse buy of $2 a jar organic almond butter has left me with a plethora of my least favorite kind of nut butter so in went a few big spoonfuls. Honey, a little bit of sugar, lots of cinnimon and a few grates of nutmeg, some eggs, oh wait they need something more…oats to the rescue.

They are o.k. but nothing special, if you try to create something like these cookies (you know, based on this glowing review ;)) I recommend baking them for just long enough to cook the eggs, otherwise they will dry out.

There’s a high of 84* predicted for today. I say BRING IT ON!

My strawberries need the SUN!

 

7 Comments

Filed under baking, cooking, dessert, running, workouts

April 5, 2011 · 4:41 pm

Hot N Smokey

Tate and I limit our eating out because it can break the budget, it’s not always as healthy as we would like, and because I love to cook.  Lunch breaks during the workweek usually involve running the mile and a half home (yes, sometimes literally) to toss together a quick meal or packing food and eating at the clinic.  Very occasionally, usually if we are tight on time and don’t have food in the fridge, we go out for lunch.   Yesterday was one of those days.

His and hers take-out

As Tate wiped the last white bun crumbles from his lips he said “can we have a big salad for dinner?”.  “Um, sure sweetie, do you want a side of fries with that salad?”

I want a side of fries with my homemade ketchup.

Ketchup has been on my list of things to make since I was in college, back in the day when it was challenging to find it without high fructose corn syrup.  I was reminded of my plan recently when I came across a recipe for lacto-fermented ketchup.  Given my affinity for all things fermented and an empty ketchup bottle in the recycling I was game to get my mixing on.

This ketchup is simple and fast to make and I loved that I could flavor it anyway that I wanted and cut down on the sugar.

I made a sweet and spicy garam masala ketchup and a hot and smokey chipotle ketchup.

First the sweet and spicy.

  • 12 ounces of tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup whey (strained from plain homemade yogurt)
  • 1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • salt, garam masala, cayenne

Whisk, whisk, whisk.  Taste, adjust spices and/or consistency (with water), and scoop into a jar.

The whey adds the culture from which the fermentation feeds and the apple cider vinegar adds flavor and acid.  By creating an acid environment in a fermented food you protect against “bad” bacteria.

Hot and Smokey Ketchup followed the same steps but went heavier on the cayenne and replaced the garam masala with ground chipotle peppers and smoked paprika.

And now I wait. The jars sit at room temperature for two days to develop the probiotics and then get moved to the refrigerator where the ketchup will keep for several months.

Cooking is like Halloween with me; I always think of the best costumes on November 1st!  When I cook I often am barely finished cleaning the kitchen when I tell myself “next time I make this I am going to [fill in the blank]”.  As I put the spices away I spotted some rosemary sprigs and thought “next time I am going to make rosemary ketchup!”.  Next time…

But for now I am going to dream of baked sweet potato fries dipped in hot and smoky (and probiotic filled :)) ketchup!

It’s time to work-it-out.  You know you’re an exercise junkie when you squeal with delight at finding the workout dvd’s you ordered in the mailbox…

I’ll give you my review of them tomorrow.

17 Comments

Filed under Fermented Food, workouts